SUMMER READING LIST for 2007-2008
Students will be tested on the books within the first week of school.
Students taking Freshman English will select from one of the first four novels listed below. Students taking Honors Freshman English will read While My Pretty One Sleeps by Mary Higgins Clark and The Chosen by Chaim Potok.
*The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence---Reminiscent of Treasure Island, Lawrence’s first novel opens in 1799 as John, who is sailing home with his merchant father, finds their ship intentionally wrecked, many of their crew murdered, and their cargo plundered. The novel centers around John’s need to find his father and prevent their ship from suffering the same fate. The novel is filled with page-turning prose, ghostly legends, and grisly danger. Even the most reluctant reader will enjoy the voyage.
*Gentlehands by M. E. Kerr---Sixteen-year-old Buddy Boyle’s life is in turmoil. His middle-class family does not understand his need to impress his wealthy new girlfriend, Skye Pennington. Skye’s friends and family do not consider Buddy to be good enough for her. Buddy turns to Grandpa Trenker, his mother’s father, for help. Grandpa Trenker has everything Buddy’s family does not: wealth, class, and understanding. Why are Buddy’s parents angry at him for his relationship with his grandfather? What dark secret surrounds Grandpa Trenker?
*While My Pretty One Sleeps by Mary Higgins Clark---The world of fashion plays a dominant role in this suspenseful novel. The murder of gossip columnist Ethel Lambston echoes another death for Neeve Kearny, owner of an expensive Madison Avenue boutique. The slaying of one of her wealthy customers draws upon her memories of her own mother’s death as she is stalked by the killer. A tale of murder, glamour and romance, While My Pretty One Sleeps presents Clark at her best.
*The Chosen by Chaim Potok---Set in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1940’s, The Chosen pairs two young boys, Danny, heir to a Hasidic rebbe, and Reuven, a Modern Orthodox Jew, in a struggle to navigate the conflicts of adolescence, loss, and faith.
Students taking Sophomore English will read from one of the first three novels listed below. Students taking Honors Sophomore English will read Cold Sassy Tree by Olivie Burns and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
*Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Burns---In this novel, Olive Ann Burks explores small-time Southern life. The main character, fourteen-year-old Willy Tweedy, is a resident of the sometimes narrow-minded town of Cold Sassy, Georgia. When Willy’s grandfather marries a woman half his age only two weeks after his wife’s death, Willy observes the reactions and adjustments of the town and his family to the news. Willy’s coming of age experience teaches him much about tragedy, love, wisdom, and acceptance.
*Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton---In his first and widely popular masterpiece, Crichton uses his trademark storytelling style to describe fictional events as actual occurrences. Many students will enjoy this novel because it reads like a non-fictional account of events. This psychological thriller explores the unthinkable consequences of the introduction of space-borne bacteria into the earth’s atmosphere when an army satellite crashes into a small Arizona town. The book follows Nobel Prize winning bacteriologist Jeremy Stone as he struggles to understand and contain a strange and deadly outbreak associated with the contamination.
*The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien---The springboard for his masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit follows the exploits of Bilbo Baggins as he returns to his ancestral home in the Lonely Mountains to reclaim a fortune from the dragon, Smaug. During his travels, Baggins wins a magical ring that will in turn inspire The Lord of the Rings.
Students taking Junior English will read one of the three novels below. Students taking Honors Junior English will read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. The reading list below does not apply to students taking Advanced Placement English 11.
*In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. On November 12, 1959 in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered for no apparent reason. Over five years later Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith were hanged for the crime. Truman Capote follows this drama from its beginning to its final resolution, creating a new genre, the docudrama. (This nonfiction novel is a graphic portrayal of true events).
*Hiroshima by John Hersey---A Pulitzer prize-winning author records the stories of six surviving Hiroshima residents shortly after the atomic bomb is dropped. These stories personalize the difficulties and trials of lives forever changed by the bombing.
Students taking Senior English will read one of the three novels listed below. Students taking Honors Senior English will not choose from the selections below but will read 1984 by George Orwell and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The reading list below does not apply to students taking Advanced Placement English 12.
*Lost Horizon by James Hilton---Nestled in the womb of the Tibetan mountains lies a hidden treasure, a paradise called ShangriLa, a land of mystery and matchless beauty that welcomes those who are lucky enough to find it but warns those who attempt to leave. Whether or not it is an act of fate or man’s will that causes an odd mixture of travelers to crash into this “secret utopia,” each is welcomed with courtesy and hospitality by its inhabitants, the most important of whom is an elderly Chinese man who holds a secret power over this magical place. Longing to return home, some of the travelers discover that the meaning of “home” has changed in a world destined to be destroyed by war and lust for power.
*Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers---Recognized as this generation’s most powerful Vietnam story, Fallen Angels, the recipient of the 1989 Coretta Scott King Award, is a coming of age story for Perry, a Harlem teenager who volunteers for military service. This novel graphically, through language and violence, portrays the real horrors of warfare as Perry and his platoon come face-to-fact with the Viet Cong. Perry must draw upon his inner strength to survive as he begins to questions why his troop is sent on the most dangerous assignments and why the U.S. is in Vietnam at all.
*A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines---A white parish overseer has been murdered at the hands of an unknown black citizen. The family members of the victim are notorious for exacting Klan-like revenge for any violations of the “unwritten race rules” which control this small town in Louisiana. Despite their innocence, a group of several old men take credit for the shooting to prevent further violence. Referred to by many critics as one of the greatest African-American novelists addressing Southern race relations in the 1960s, Gaines moves the reader by portraying the suffering endured by some black men at the hands of whites. An interesting twist, however, is that Gaines masterfully weaves a plot that presents a balanced view of the issue as the secrets of many characters are unraveled.